15th Nov 2013 12:10
LONDON (Alliance News) - EnQuest PLC Friday said production rose 7.2% in the first 10 months of the year, and it reaffirmed its production target of between 22,000 and 24,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day for the full year.
The oil and gas development and production company said that production in the 10-month period, was driven by a strong performance from its Thistle producing field, having introduced a new production well in mid-August.
EnQuest also said that its Kraken field development plan has been given the go-ahead by the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change, with first production anticipated for 2016/2017.
The company holds a 60% stake in the major oil field off the Shetland Islands, which is expected to contain 137 million barrels of oil.
It said that its producing fields Thistle and Devron have produced an average of nearly 10,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the first four months of the second half of the year. However, in the year to date, production from Thistle was lower than last year due to third-party downstream outages and an extended outage of the B turbine generator while the new D turbine was being commissioned.
EnQuest said its Heather producing field has continued to deliver strong year-on-year production growth, buoyed by good well performance and improved operating efficiency at Broom and Heather.
It said that the Heather drilling rig activation project is on track to be completed in the second half of the year, and rig operations are expected to start in December.
The group said that production from the Don fields was up over 8% on the same period last year, benefiting from a good performance from the West Don W6/W4 producer injector pair, following the tie-in of the W6 injector well in the first quarter.
Enquest said that it now expects capital expenditure for the year to be up to USD1.2 billion, following the go-ahead of its development plans for the Kraken field.
The group said that during the fourth quarter, its agreed a new six-year USD1.7 billion credit facility.
Shares in the company were down 0.5% Friday morning, at 133.99 pence per share.
By Rowena Harris-Doughty; [email protected]; @rharrisdoughty
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